Pleated portable bidet

ABSTRACT

A hand-operated a portable bidet enables users to carry and operate a bidet wherever they travel. The portable bidet is a unitary container having an aperture at one end and a compressible, pleated plastic sidewall. The bidet may be filled with water and compressed by hand to eject water from the aperture. The pleats separate several tiers of ascending diameter towards to bottom of the bidet, enabling the tiers to be collapsed into each other when the bidet was empty. This collapsibility forms a compact package which may easily be carried.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art nor material to the presently described or claimed inventions, nor that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of bathroom hygiene of existing art and more specifically relates to a portable bidet.

RELATED ART

In modern times, great importance is placed on hygiene, and especially around bathroom functions. Maintaining body cleanliness may be accomplished by using toilet paper. However, may users prefer using water. This can be accomplished using a bidet, a term which encompasses a variety of plumbing fixtures used to wash the genitalia, buttocks, and anus. However, bidets are limited in use, particular in the western world. Users accustomed to using bidets may lack the use of bidets in public restrooms in these regions. Because bidets are fixed plumbing fixtures, they require significant cost and work to install. Due to these disadvantages, a new portable bidet device enabling users to conveniently carry them to any location is desired.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,366 to Kanari Tani relates to a portable, locally washing hygienic device. The described portable, locally washing hygienic includes a water container of a flexible synthetic resin film member, a water supply tube mounted on the water container and acting as a water passage, a spray nozzle mounted on an upper portion of the water supply tube, and a valve assembly interposed between the spray nozzle and the water supply tube, in which a lower portion of the water supply tube located within the water container is joined together through a connecting member with an inner surface portion of the water container by thermally fusing or otherwise. Tani's device provides one solution to the fixed bidet problem. However, a need for a more portable and compact bidet device remains.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known bathroom hygiene art, the present disclosure provides a novel pleated portable bidet. The general purpose of the present disclosure, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a pleated portable bidet.

A hand-operated a portable bidet enables users to carry and operate a bidet wherever they travel. The portable bidet is a unitary container having an aperture at one end and a compressible, pleated plastic sidewall. The bidet may be filled with water and compressed by hand to eject water from the aperture. The pleats separate several tiers of ascending diameter towards to bottom of the bidet, enabling the tiers to be collapsed into each other when the bidet was empty. This collapsibility forms a compact package which may easily be carried.

For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures which accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments and methods of use for the present disclosure, a pleated portable bidet, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the portable bidet according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of the portable bidet of FIG. 1 in a deployed configuration, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the portable bidet of FIG. 1 in a collapsed configuration, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the portable bidet of FIG. 1 in an in-use condition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to bathroom hygiene and more particularly to a pleated portable bidet as used to improve the ability to use a bidet in any location.

Generally, the disclosed portable bidet is a device which may be used to clean a user's genitals and buttocks after using the restroom. Like a traditional bidet known in the art, the disclosed portable bidet may be used to spray water to clean soiled regions of the body. However, unlike traditional bidets in know art, the present disclosure provides means of making a bidet portable, compact, and collapsible. The disclosed portable bidet may further be used without a pressurized water source, relying rather on the compression of water within a container to be forced out of an orifice using no external energy other than a user's hand pressure.

The portable bidet may include a semi-flexible container having a hollow interior region able to contain water. The container may be having the geometry of a tapered cylinder, with a circular base and a circular top, such that the circular top is of a smaller diameter than the circular bottom. In some embodiments, the base may be larger than the top; in either case, the tapered nature of the container provides and important function. Preferably, the sidewall on the container is not a smooth taper; rather, the sidewall is pleated, having steps which reduce the diameter of the sidewall towards on end. (For the purpose of this specification, the term pleat is not limited to a fold of clothing or like material. It may indicate a step, a tier, a fold, etc. in the sidewall of the container.) These pleats, combined with the semi-flexible nature of the container, enables the container to be compacted for convenient transportation and storage. When the container is fully deployed, these pleats are almost straightened, and they may appear as steps or corrugations in the sidewall of the container. When compacted, this pleats fold inwards towards the center of the container, and effectively reduce the length between the base and the top of the container. In an exemplary embodiment, the sidewall includes two pleats which effectively divide the container into three steps or tiers when deployed. However, more pleats and more tiers may be implemented to the same effect. The pleats may have a width that looks like a ring between the two folds which form each pleat. This ring, when the bidet is deployed, may be almost or completely parallel to the top end and the bottom end; when the bidet is collapsed, it may be almost folded parallel to the sidewall. When deployed, the rings in the pleats are semi-rigid and provide enough lateral rigidity to maintain the shape of the portable bidet. For the purposes of this specification, lateral means parallel to the planes defined by the top end or bottom end.

The pleats serve an additional function in that, when the container is fully deployed, they still provide sufficient flexibility to enable a user to compress the container by hand. When the container is partially of fully filled with fluid, compressing the container enables water to be forced out of the aperture with some degree of pressure and projection.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings by numerals of reference, there is shown in FIGS. 1-4, various views of a portable bidet 100.

FIG. 1 shows a portable bidet according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Here, portable bidet 100 may be beneficial for use by a user to help clean themselves after using the restroom. As illustrated, portable bidet 100 may include flexible body 110. Flexible body 110 may have top-circular end 112, bottom-circular end 114 and cylindrical sidewall 116. In one exemplary embodiment, flexible body 110 is constructed of polyethelene terephthalate. However, other materials may be used. Cylindrical sidewall 116 extends between the top-circular end 112 and bottom-circular end 114. Bottom-circular end 114 and top-circular end 112 may be parallel circular planes defining opposite ends of portable bidet 100. Bottom-circular end 114 is larger in diameter than top-circular end 112, ensuring a wide base to support and steady portable bidet 100 when it is resting on a surface. Cylindrical sidewall 116 itself includes plurality of annular pleats 120, which enable cylindrical sidewall 116 to fold in towards a center of flexible body 110 such that the cylindrical sidewall 116 may fold up to at least one-hundred and thirty-five degrees at each pleat. Plurality of tiers 130 may be defined and separated by plurality of annular pleats 120. Aperture 140 may perforate top-circular end 112. Preferably, aperture 140 is central to the top-circular end.

FIG. 2 shows portable bidet 100 of FIG. 1 in a deployed condition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, flexible body 110 (FIG. 1) contains an interior volume 118 able to contain a fluid. Aperture 140 perforates top-circular end 112 and opens interior volume 118 to an exterior of portable bidet 100. Fluid may pass into and out of interior volume 118 by means of aperture 140. Each of plurality of tiers 130 may be characterized by tier-diameter 132, such that tier-diameter 132 is unique, differing from that of each other of plurality of tiers 130.

FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of portable bidet 100 of FIG. 1 in a collapsed condition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Portable bidet 100 may be collapsed by compressing top-circular end 112 and bottom-circular end 114 towards each other. As illustrated, each of the plurality of annular pleats 120 may include convex-fold 122 and concave-fold 124. When portable bidet 100 is collapsed, annular pleats 120 fold as shown, reducing the distance between top-circular end 112 and bottom-circular end 114. Each of plurality of annular pleats 120 may comprise flat annular ring 126 between convex-fold 122 and concave-fold 124, such that the flat annular ring 126 provides lateral rigidity to cylindrical sidewall 116 when the portable bidet 100 is deployed, each of convex-fold 122 and concave-fold 124 maintaining an angle of between sixty and one-hundred-and-ten degrees when portable bidet 100 is deployed.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of portable bidet 100 of FIG. 1 in an in-use condition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, a user 40 may eject water from portable bidet 100 by gripping cylindrical sidewall 110 by hand and squeezing, thereby compressing interior volume 118 (FIG. 2) and forcing water out of aperture 140.

The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. 

What is claimed is new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:
 1. A portable bidet comprising: a flexible body having a top-circular end, a bottom-circular end, and a cylindrical sidewall between the top-circular end and bottom-circular end, the top-circular end being larger in diameter than the bottom-circular end, the cylindrical sidewall itself comprising a plurality of annular pleats enabling the cylindrical sidewall to fold in towards a center of the flexible body such that the cylindrical sidewall may fold up to at least one-hundred and thirty-five degrees at each pleat, and a plurality of tiers separated by the plurality of annular pleats, each of the plurality of tiers having a tier-diameter unique differing from that of each other of the plurality of tiers; an interior volume contained by the flexible body; an aperture perforating the top-circular end and opening the interior volume to an exterior of the portable bidet;
 2. The portable bidet of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of annular pleats include a convex-fold and a concave-fold.
 3. The portable bidet of claim 1, wherein the flexible body is constructed of polyethelene terephthalate.
 4. The portable bidet of claim 1, wherein the aperture is central to the top-circular end.
 5. The portable bidet of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of annular pleats comprise a flat annular ring between the convex-fold and the concave-fold, such that the flat annular ring provides lateral rigidity to the cylindrical sidewall when the portable bidet is deployed, each on the convex-fold and the concave-fold maintaining an angle of between sixty and one-hundred-and-ten degrees when the portable bidet is deployed. 